Threethirty
The basic numbers are the US receives $2500bn in Revenues and spends $3800bn, so consequently borrows $1300bn to balance the budget.
Let's debunk a few myths,
1. Defence spending is $900bn. If the US spent no money on Defence, they would still need to borrow money.
2, Social Security costs are rising rapidly and sit at about $1500bn. An aging population and rising medical costs are prime causes in increased spending. Regarding medical costs, more money is spent in the final year of life, than the the other years of their life combined.
3. More than 50% of babies are born to unmarried mothers. Statistically, children from fatherless families fare badly economically in later life and are more likely to become a net-taker from the State.
4. The bailout cost about $1000bn. However, it preserved a lot of jobs and companies and the consequent tax revenues. Whether that was worth doing is debateable, however can you or any else say with certainty how the economy would have fared without the bailout?
5. The US GDP is $17,000bn. The 1%ers represent $170bn of the US economy, so even if you taxed them at 100%, you so do not even dent the national debt. The Starbuck's issue does remind us that if you raise taxes too much, taxpayers move to jurisdictions that have lower taxes. This is not a loophole, but the reality of a modern globalized economy. Don't believe me, just walk through Soho in Hong Kong on a Friday night.
In short, the popular media will focus on Defence spending, bad mouth Wall Street and promote the idea of taxing the 1%ers, but the US needs to come to terms with a rapidly aging population, expanding healthcare costs and an exploding subculture of people who will always be a drain on the Budget.
Boring, unpalatable, even unelectable, but true.....